Rajiv Shah

Dr. Rajiv Shah led the efforts of nearly 10,000 staff in more than 70 countries around the world to advance USAID’s mission of ending extreme poverty and promoting resilient, democratic societies.

Under Dr. Shah’s leadership, USAID applied innovative technologies and engaged the private sector to solve the world’s most intractable development challenges. This new model of development brings together an increasingly diverse community—from large companies to local civil society groups to communities of faith—to deliver meaningful results.

Dr. Shah also managed the U.S. Government’s humanitarian response to catastrophic crises around the world, from the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Through an extensive set of reforms called “USAID Forward,” Dr. Shah worked with the United States Congress to transform USAID into the world’s premier development Agency that prioritizes public-private partnerships, innovation, and meaningful results. He currently serves on the boards of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, as well as participates on the National Security Council.

Previously, Dr. Shah served as Undersecretary and Chief Scientist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he created the National Institute for Food and Agriculture. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, he spent eight years at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he led efforts in global health, agriculture, and financial services, including the creation of the International Finance Facility for Immunization.

He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and the Wharton School of Business. He regularly appears in the media and has delivered keynote addresses before the U.S. Military Academy, the National Prayer Breakfast, and diverse audiences across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Dr. Shah was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He has served as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, been named to Fortune’s 40 Under 40, and has received multiple honorary degrees.

He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Shivam Mallick Shah and three children and has given up mountain climbing for family bicycle rides.

USAID recognizes the vibrant work of women leaders throughout the region. We know your exchanges over the next few days will offer many fruitful opportunities for you to learn and benefit from one another’s experiences. The theme of the workshop is exploring the way forward. Although the workshop will last only a few days, I hope that each of you will listen carefully, participate fully, and be inspired. Learn from your neighbors. Take back a new approach to make a meaningful change when you return home.

Our mission is to end extreme poverty around the world, to promote rights and democracy, sometimes in tough settings. And that attracts a special kind of employee to our organization; and the more we can discuss, dialogue, and build the right culture, the more we know we are actually espousing in our day-to-day work the values we hold so dear so that everyone has rights and opportunity.

And to take this forward today, we’re taking these efforts to another level by announcing a Joint Communique on LGBTI Human Rights. To be signed by more than 20 countries, the communique will enable us to share best practices, improve international coordination, and advance a sustainable, community-based approach to our work.

The U.S. government, through President Obama’s global food security initiative known as “Feed the Future,” strives to increase agricultural production, incomes, nutrition, and the resiliency of rural households. I am very pleased to inform you all that Cambodia was one of nineteen countries in the world selected to participate in this initiative.

I am honored to join you today for this Advocacy meeting on Accelerating the Attainment of Millennium Development Goal 5 in Kenya. Now, “Millennium Development Goal 5” is a pretty dry name. So let me put it another way. We are here today about the health of mothers. We are here about the health of families. We are here because Kenyans do not want their country to be one of the 10 most dangerous countries in the world for mothers to give birth. We are here about our shared future.

Our Agency works in more than 70 countries around the world. But no matter where we work, we believe that investing in LGBT persons is a critical part of our mission to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies.

Over the past decade, TB morbidity and mortality indicators in the region have significantly improved, with fewer cases and even fewer deaths attributed to TB. According to the 2012 WHO Global TB Report, estimated cases of TB (incidence) in Kyrgyz Republic fell from 249 (per 100,000) to 128 between 2000 and 2011; similarly, the estimated mortality rate (per 100,000) fell from 24 to 12 from 2000 to 2011. However, rates of MDR-TB are increasing in Central Asian region as a whole, as well as in the Kyrgyz Republic.

It is widely known that Ethiopia is the birthplace of Arabica coffee and exports some of the highest quality coffee in the world, including many specialty coffees such as Yirgacheffe, Harar and Sidama. Despite this long history and unique coffee culture, the Ethiopian coffee value chain has yet to realize its full potential for increased growth especially for the benefit of smallholder farmers.

Good morning. It is a great pleasure for me to be here today and to extend a warm welcome to everyone in this Regional Policy Dialogue. I wish to thank the ASEAN SME Working Group as well as the US-ASEAN Business Council for their support in organizing this meeting. I would also like to thank the speakers and resource persons from the public and private sectors and from international organizations for their participation today. They are giving their valuable time to share their rich experiences, good practices, and successes in the area of women’s economic empowerment to help us recommend a strong agenda for ASEAN in the future.

It is great source of pride for me to be here and mark two decades of close cooperation between the United States Government and the Government of Ethiopia through the Ministry of Education and my agency, USAID. This collaboration to improve education quality and equitable access to learning have resulted in many more children in school, far fewer dropping out, improved student learning, and, very importantly, more girls in primary schools. So let me begin with congratulations to all of you and your predecessors on this very measurable progress.

Today, OTI’s legacy of success now stretches through 60 countries across the globe: From communities in Colombia free of the devastation of illicit drug trafficking… …To rural clinics in Rwanda saving thousands of children from malaria and malnutrition… …To vibrant schools in Indonesia, where a new generation of entrepreneurs, doctors, and engineers are preparing to lead their country towards a more prosperous tomorrow, for all of their citizens.